MEMORIES....

Dawn Boyle

As many of you have read we went out on a limb late last year and purchased a bigger boat. It has all the luxuries of home..air conditioning, central vac, an in house dish washer (me), and at this point I think we have 4 grills. We have done some short trips. Gone to numerous restaurants. Slept over with our awesome Tobay friends almost every weekend, and Gregory launched the girls dingy this past weekend.

We have crab traps, clam rakes, boogie boards, and Mommy's very own floating lounge (still in box). We watch movies on the beach on giant "screens" aka sheets and hand out glow sticks like they are going out of style. We dine at our two very own restaurants and play at the water park and newly installed mini-golf. We celebrate birthdays and all watch out for each others kids. I have made a number of new friends, but have also rekindled friendships from long ago and solidified casual acquaintances,  now to be some of my go-to people. We really are a family - of course there is some MAJOR dysfunction, but what good family is void of that?

Along with all the fun does come some sad...we had the unfortunate experience this week of having someone lose a child. He was 22 years old and happened to be hit by a car while walking on the shoulder of a road in Suffolk County. I never met him, but know his parents. My heart breaks for Snug As A Bug and their family. One thing is for certain, their Tobay family will be there for them, cause that is just how it goes down at the beach.

REST IN PEACE E.F.

MAY GOD HELP YOUR FAMILY DURING THIS DIFFICULT TIME

 OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU

WHEN FORTY FEEL LIKE SIXTEEN

DRL is thrilled to introduce our newest contributor...
Michele Rohyans

Starting out in a new relationship is always an adventure. Before we begin, I want to make it clear that this is not a bitter piece; in fact, it is very much the opposite.  This is a piece about the joy of opening your heart just when you were pretty sure you were OK with life just as it was...

When you are in your teens romantic love is a completely new concept, and you rush in, as you do most things at that age, with the assurance that there is no way anything painful will result...until it does. However, young hearts, most young hearts anyway, are quick to heal. Soon you are off and running again down that dangerous, twisting, rocky, hilly path, at break neck speed, forgetting that just a short time ago one of those emotional trees rose up in the middle of the path (when you were least expecting it of course) and SMACK! You went down with a thump as one of the lower limbs skewered your heart breaking it into a million pieces (melodramatic I know, but that is how things are when you are in your teens). Yet, and at the time it is really not what you want to hear, this is “puppy love” and like training wheels on a bicycle serves to prepare us for the next phase which is love in the twenties.